'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

Scottish Government made Covid-19 a notifiable disease ELEVEN days earlier than UK

As the Covid-19 political recriminations are ramped up in Scotland, the ‘factual record’ becomes more and more important. One ‘factual topic’ of relevance is when this new virus, Covid-19 was made a ’notifiable disease’, meaning that medical practitioners become legally required to share patient information with public health authorities when they have reasonable grounds to suspect a patient has coronavirus.

The UK government added Covid-19 to the list of notifiable diseases within England on 5 March, 2020

I understand that Covid-19 became a notifiable disease on:6 March in Wales29 February in Northern Ireland20 February in the Republic of Ireland.

By the 5 March, the day the UK government made Covid-19 notifiable in England, Scotland which had acted on this c. 11 days earlier, had a total of just three cases of the virus confirmed according to the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 data dashboard.

For context on timings of making Covid-19 a notifiable disease in Scotland and England , on 14 February the first European death due to coronavirus happened at a hospital in Paris. The victim was a 80-year-old Chinese tourist. On 23 February in Italy, as the number of cases there reached 150, some Italian cities were shut down. Schools and other public places were closed. The WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic on 11 March.

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com